By Charles.S.Perera

Democracy permits any peaceful manifestation of the people against a government to show their dissatisfaction of the way the country is being ruled. It is of course outside democracy for the people or groups of people or individuals to take up arms of any sort to manifest their dissatisfaction of the way they are being ruled by a government. That would be an armed rebellion or terrorism.

In America there are individuals who show their dissatisfaction on issues that personally affect them by taking a gun and kill children in schools, or innocent people on the street. That is because in USA there are many people who are psychologically ill. Some of them do not take guns but make very impertinent statements that harm countries. If such statements are against the people of the country though in favour of the government in place those are also a form of terrorism against the people who have no means of making the government hear their suffering.

Someone that falls into that latter category is the present US Ambassador Atul Keshup who made a very cheap and a derogatory remark. He had said:

The United States is committed to the future of all of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s presidential election of January 2015 marked a historic shift in the country’s political direction and made possible a new relationship with the United States. Sri Lankan voters elected a new government built upon the pledge of good governance and national reconciliation and rejected an increasingly authoritarian rule by a government determined to erode democratic institutions”

However that is also a manifestation of ideas that fester the mind of an undiplomatic diplomat. These statements are also reasons for people to manifest their dissatisfaction against the Yahapalanaya government which has allowed diplomats from USA interfere directly into internal affairs of their country subjugating Sri Lanka to a foreign power.

Now what is Padayathra ? It is also a manifestation of the people against a ruling government. It may be peaceful but it can be noisy as it is a gathering of large number of people.

More precisely, Padayathra is a long walk lasting some times days organised to get all the people who have no other means to make their voices of anger heard by a stubborn , arrogant and an inefficient ruling class. It is quite a democratic and a legitimate right of the people. Ordinary responsible governments of the people take these manifestations seriously put right the wrongs the are doing and make the government acceptable to the people or leave the government for some one else to put to right the wrongs they have done or they are doing.

The recent Padayathra in Sri Lanka from the 28th to 31st July organised by the Joint Opposition of the parliament of Sri Lanka, was a great success, and it was surprising that Maithripala Sirisena –the President and Ranil Wickramasinghe the Prime Minister and his UNP cohorts were misinterpreting the well organised, well attended and well behaved manifestation of the people. To ridicule it and put it aside as unimportant is to insult the people and a stupid attempt to underestimate the power of the people that unseated the popular government of Mahinda Rajapakse to put in place a government of the UNP, SLFP,TNA, JVP and SLMC, expecting them to do better.

What has happened is that the people who wanted a change for the better has got the worst possible government Sri Lanka ever had, which continues to burden the people with taxes, causing a rise of unemployment, suspending development projects started by President Mahinda Rajapakse, selling public enterprises, and sign agreements with India which would further aggravate unemployment, increase the cost of living, increase poverty and destabilise the economic, and social conditions of the people.

Instead of listening to the voice of the people raised in the Padayathra, Sirisena-Wickramasinghe-Chandrika sponsored Yahapalanaya government does not stop criticising the Padayathra. The UNP and SLFP Ministers open their mouths to criticise with a view to diminish the importance of the people’s manifestation”. They critise the manifestantion for having allowed the people to dance, they say the number of participants were smaller than the numbers expected, they say that manifestants hooted in front of the SLFP Head Quarters. Chandrika has called the police to guard the SWRD Bandaranayake memorial to avoid it being desecrated. These were done purposely to show that the manifestation had no effect on them or their government.

The Government had ordered the police to stop the Padayathra at any cost, but due to the fact of its popularity with the participation of an un-expectedly large number of people the Courts from whom the police had demanded a ruling to stop the manifestation passing through towns refused to issue such orders. The stupidity of the government was such they even refused to give the ground on which the Padayathra was to end, despite the fact that it had been reserved well in advance.

The Yahapalanaya Government with all their attempts to stop the Padayatra showed clearly to the people they are not democratic, they do not listen to the people, and the suffering of the people is not their concern and that they are bent on continuing their most disastrous government for five years whether the people like it or not.

Of course a manifestation of the people as it was with the Padayathra cannot be conducted silently, as it is a funeral procession. Shouting slogans, singing songs, certain misbehaviour at times, and wearing masks are normal pattern of a manifestation meant to last for long period of time.

In France manifestations are worst. They wear masks representing the President and government Ministers. They burn effigies. They even dig the roads to unearth stones with which to throw at the police. They break shop windows and set fire to cars. The farmers during manifestations drive their cattle” on the streets, unload lorry loads of vegetables, fruits, potatoes, fish, flour and grain, and spill thousands of litters of milk on the road .

The Padayathra Organised by the Joint Opposition was a great show of strength of the people who behaved through out the manifestation remarkably well.

Another matter emphasised by the opponents of the Padayathra was that a child cried out a political slogan. How can that be wrong, the parents who participated in the Padayathra may have come with their parents and it is not using children for labour ! In manifestations in big capitals in Europe, fathers carry children carrying flags on their shoulders. Mothers push their prams with their babies in them

Unfortunately the Joint Opposition did not have the support of the faction of the SLFP which is with the President who is blind, deaf unable to see who is running the country he has only a big mouth with which to trash the ex President. There is no national government as such , and the SLFP which was formed by SWRD Bandaranayake as a political system against the capitalism of UNP have no right whatsoever now to form a pseudo national government with the very same UNP from which SWRD broke away.

The worst of it is that, it is the UNP which is the dominant party in the Yahapalanaya, the SLFP is a weak appendage hanging on to UNP, TNA,JVP, JHU and SLMC, merely to keep their political advantage of having Ministerial positions.

Even the media is not taking a constructive role in informing the people of the dangers Sri Lanka is running without an opposition to Ranil Wickramasinghe, Chandrika, and Mangala Samaraweera. Little by little Sri Lanka is loosing its independence and sovereignty, being assimilated into USA and Western political system against China and Russia.

It is the joint opposition that keeps informing the people of the dangerous political diversions that are being taken by Yahapalanaya Government. Maithripala Sirisena as the President has lost his hold on the government run by Ranil Wickramasinghe .

Maithripala Sirisena has already become a ceremonial President sent to represent Sri Lanka in International Forums and meet political leaders sympathetic to USA and Western political systems. Maithripala Sirisena as President has absolutely no power to stop where this government is heading under Ranil Wickramasinghe.

Only opposition to this government’s reactionary activities come from the Joint Opposition. The Joint Oppostion is the only hope the country has to come out of the abyss into which Ranil, Chandrika, Mangala are pushing our motherland.

People like S.B.Dissanayake, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Sarath Amunugama are absolutely useless. They were rejected by the people and thanks to Maithripala Sirisena they have not only been taken to the Parliament but made Ministers as well. So they are absolutely indebted to the President and do every thing possible to stay on in power along side Sirisena what ever may happen to the country.

S.B.Dissanayake who speaks as a saviour , asserting that he will not allow the sovereignty of Sri Lanka put in danger, says when asked why he does not support the Joint Opposition against eroding sovereignty of Sri Lanka say, SLFP is the party of the people. It has to remain strong and united. That would result in a secure undivided country. One thing we need to understand is that good diplomacy is not selling the country out.” But the fact remains that these persons who are greedy for political positions refuse to stand aside when the country is in danger.

The President, and UNP Ministers state in meetings, at press conferences and in TV programmes that Yahapalanaya is a unique experience in that the main political parties with opposite views have joined together to form a government to give their best to the progress and development of the country. But in this unique experience as they like to say, the Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe’s UNP views dominate.

If in the Yahapalanaya government SLFP section of the Government accepts every action taken by the UNP section headed by the Prime Minister there would be no one to say halt to any actions taken by the Prime Minister which are not in the interest of the people. As Maithripala Sirisena has forbidden the SLFP Ministers to speak against the UNP , they obey the President for fear of loosing their Ministerial posts. Hence the SLFP section of the Yahapalanaya government does not oppose any action by Ranil Wickramasinghe the Prime Minister whether they are in agreement of those actions or not.

Hence it is only the Joint Opposition the people have to look after their interests and speak against actions taken by the Yahapalanay government initiated by Ranil Wickramasinghe which are not in the interest of the country. That was the reason why the people rocked in massive numbers around the Joint Opposition to manifest in the Padayathra it organised.

The Ministers of Yahapalanaya talks about democracy,saying that the country did not have democracy under the ex President. But the democracy of the Yahapalanayaa has a different meaning. Their democracy has paved way to a dictatorship-even the speaker of the Parliament is not independent and acts according to the Agenda of the UNP Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe, who in turn acts according to the Agenda of the USA and the West.

Chandrika has no place in Sri Lanka as people have lost faith in her, therefore she is building up her political stature by becoming a political agent of USA and the West. Ranil gets on well with Chandrika as Mahinda Rajapakse is their common enemy.

The Bill on Missing Persons Office is an absolutely unwanted piece of legislature for the well being of Sri Lanka. It was enacted by Yahapalanaya to get closer to the USA and the West. We see from the USA and Western reaction to the passing of the bill on the Office for Missing persons that it is a legislation requested by the USA and the West to fulfil their agenda of making Sri Lanka a strategic political base for America against China and Russia, and also for USA and the West to make good the promise they made to the Tamil Diaspora to allow them a separate Tamil Eelam State separated from the South. A Kosovo in the Indian Ocean.

Intelligent people of Sri Lanka, at least all the categories of the Sinhala people, Buddhists , Christians, Catholics, and even free thinkers should join together to protect the rights of the Sinhala people.

The Padayathra has opened the eyes of the people , and frightened the Yahapalanaya government and its supporters like the JVP and the TNA, and even those pseudo intellectuals and the English educated class became aware thanks to Padayathra that the ordinary mass of people are not ready to take things lying low. The power of the ordinary people is greater than their attachment to USA and the Western tilted politics.

These pseudo patriots now know, because of the Padayathra that was able to get hundreds of thousands of people to participate that there is a considerable opposition to Yahapalanaya Regime amoung the people in Sri Lanka.

The UNP Ministers and Maithripala Sirisena himself , and Chandrika minimises the importance of the Padayathra. Some count numbers of people who attended the Padayathra. People who watched it saw the massive numbers in attendance but the UNP and its supporters make themselves pathetically ridiculous making numbers small and the length of the manifestation reduced to a few meters.

The Yahapalanaya cronies refuse to accept that, whether the numbers who attended the Padayathra were small and the length of it was short or not the importance is that there is a growing opposition to the Yahapalanaya and that they should instead of criticising the Joint Opposition, change their policies to be acceptable by the people who beginning to be tired of their heedless steamroller political activities.

I agree with you that the Pada Yatra was a great success, and was an act representativr of the highest traditions of democracy.

I urge MORE Padayathra’s to be held encompassing ALL areas of the country to sensitize the people to the great dangers threatening the country, and to energize their support to confront those threats.

The CRITICISM and MINIMIZATION of the Pada Yatra by the Yamapalanaya is to be expected, but will only add to its legitimacy and the growth of opposition to the Yamapalanaya. The more they yell, the more it will remain in the forefront and thr more the people will oppose the Yamapalanaya.

Some very pretentiously ask what did the Padayathra do. The President is still there PM is still there the Yahapalanaya government is still there ?

It is an absurd thing to ask. A manifestation is not a bomb that kills and destroys or a manthra that caste a curse and the people shrivel up with the effect of the curse.

A Padayathra is to show that there is a large number of people who are dissatisfied with the way things are being done by the Yahapalanaya Government. If the Yahapalanaya government consists of intelligent men they should take into account the peoples dissatisfaction and take corrective measures. That is in a working democracy. If they do nothing people should continue manifestations until the government respects the wishes of the people and steps down. But these are thick skinned moron who are feathering their own nests whatever happens to the people and the country.

Why can’t all the leaders of Lanka get together to bring a lasting Peace to the nation ?

The important points to address at present are :

*** That the Ports of Lanka should be for PEACEFUL PURPOSES ONLY ***

* That the following Yahap plans are NOT implemented :

– ETCA
– sea tunnel to Tamil Nadu
– 5,000 acre lots of land on 99 yr leases to foreigners
– New Constitution that may be inimical to Lanka – a New Constitution is NOT needed – what is needed is to REMOVE the ILLEGAL 13-A and that Tamil leaders must REVOKE the Vadukoddai Resolution of 1976 (Eelam through Violence).

Paada Yaathra was a great success. Hats off to the organisers and the participants. Nugegoda rally was enough to send shivers though Yahapalanaya. Paada Yaathra showed to the world the law abiding, discipline of the majority community. Americans who bomb countries to distribute Democracy are keeping silent and working behind the scene to pass unfavorable bills through parliament in the most undemocratic manner. They would have eliminated Rookadaya by now if not for the fact that this brain dead man is the president of SLFP. I too would like to see some tangible results. The best under the current comedy would be for the SLFP MPs to resign from government and join the JO and request the back boneless Speaker to recognise them as the official opposition.

I am not angry with you personally, but I am strongly opposed to everyone who supports destructive enemies of my motherland.

We are fighting a battle for the very survival and future prosperity of our proud and sovereign nation. I am opposed to all who sabotage that in various devious ways as Lorenzo was doing. You supported Lorenzo who had proved by his actions that he was interested only in destroying our patriotic war-winning government, misleading patriots, advocating destructive “solutions” that would further divide and endanger Sri Lanka ….. all while posing as a “super patriot” Tamil.

Recently he was again inciting the armed forces of Sri Lanka to launch a coup-de-etat as a way of ousting the Yamapalanaya govt that he himself vociferously supported with false propaganda at Lanka Web leading upto the election. The armed forces have earned the love, respect and support of the Sinhala Buddhists and most other Sri Lankans with their courage and sacrifices, and such interference in o Erth rowing any elected government would discredit them. The voters of Sri Lanka must solve the political problem they themselves caused, the armed forces must stay out of it.

Now that Lorenzo’s regime change goal has been achieved and we are fighting to rescue our motherland from the pit it has fallen into, he has returned to continue his program to mislead and misdirect people, and aggravate the situation with more destructive eelamist propaganda designed to create chaos.

You supported Lorenzo in his pre-election propaganda for whatever reason. Take a moment to reflect on what you supported when you could have listened to the rest of us patriots who never forgot what MR/UPFA govt did for our country, and understood the danger posed by falling prey to the regime change mantra chanted by enemy agitators such as Lorenzo, realizing that this was the only shield protecting our people.

If you sincerely acknowledge you made an error in supporting Lorenzo in his destructive antics, and you end that collaboration, there is no reason I can’t forgive and give you a hug too!

Ananda, everyone has the right to support any candidate at an election. You can’t shut people up because they voted for the other party.

I have ALWAYS stood up for SL and NOT for politicians.

MR had many shortcomings during his LAST term. The defeat would have taught him who his REAL friends are. A renewed MR is more suitable to lead the country than 2014 MR. By 2014 the old govt. could not even do a padayatra. Now look at padayatra. When in power MR forgot to visit Buddhist temples. But now he cannot be separated from Buddhist temples. He used to rush to Tirupathi kovil to worship Endians every 4 years but now he never goes there. What a great transformation. Isn’t it?

2015 election gives patriots MORE OPTIONS for future president. GR, SW, WW, UG, etc. None of these options was available in 2014.

Some people cried when Murali, MJ and Sanga retired. But look what happened. Herat, Dananja, Dinesh, Menda, Kusal won 3-0 against world #1.

Now MR has more time to GROOM the next patriotic president as he is relieved of presidential duties and he rarely goes to parliament. I wish he uses his time PRODUCTIVELY to GROOM the next patriotic president.

Ananda,
I did not personally supported ( it means campaigning with the aim of wining votes) any candidate. I only made my opinion here in Lankaweb ONLY. I have no active facebook, I have more important things to do. I had ZERO connections with Lorenzo, but I like him.
Today I commented elsewhere
“Clearly people have had hope and hopes gone now. Same as any other election. It doesn’t mean they have been fooled. It doesn’t mean people made wrong decision. It means evolving nature of unstoppable criminal governments continuing to self destruction of the nation.”

My opinion then was “MR government should be removed” and I DO NOT REGRET. You can look at his ministers then and you will know.

Dear Ananda,
You have a good heart. You look after poor children.
Open you eyes and read the news about how vulnerable children have been used by heartless creature with a name “Deshashakti Sinha Nimal Pieris”. Look at how he has be friended with politicians, IGP, two presidents of the country, leaders of our forces etc. This is the direction we are heading towards. At least Deshashkti ANimal is now in jail. But see how IGP tried to protect him.
For these children they might think death is better than living. We must stop this. We must teach children right and wrong before anything else.

If I understood my Sinhalese well,last night the president came on TV and assured very forcefully that he will usher good governance.Let’s hope he keeps his word and all patriotic politicians support him.There’s so much wrong happening in the country and hardly anything being done to tackle it during the past.Promised changes are not apparent enough.During the last day of the Kandy perahara when the president visited Kandy no armed military men on the street but there was a few on top of buildings that was not needed.
Yet politicians are escorted and drive at speed and in a hurry for what but to demonstrate their utter contempt and arrogance to us the people.
To me it seems that the elected politicians are not accountable to the people.Hope the new government will put things right.It is also sad to notice that the people themselves have given up and accepting the inevitable that is now prevailing in most third world failed states.
All politicians have a duty to serve the country but not themselves but sadly there are cheer leaders of bad governance who may have been benefited by the bad politicians but justice and fair play will prevail at the end.

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